Headlines  
Senate passes US highway bill penalizing privatization
Sunshine laws need an upgrade – opinion
National parks for sale?
IL: Plans to privatize Midway airport may fly again
PA: For Penn State, going private an option
FL: Florida parents push back against for-profit schools
CA: Public college charging students extra for mandatory classes
NJ: Englewood school outsourcing plan leads to protest at meeting
FL: Feds question Florida’s Medicaid privatization plans
LA: Some lawmakers oppose plan to close, sell prisons
CT: Bristol council’s question: Would it be cheaper to privatize city jobs?

Senate passes US highway bill penalizing privatization
…An amendment by Senator Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat, [would] discourage states from leasing roads to private operators. The amendment, which passed 50-47, added to language already in the bill that would limit tax breaks for companies such as Macquarie Infrastructure Co. (MIC) that operate highways for states. Bingaman’s amendment excludes privately operated toll roads from the formula that calculates U.S. highway aid to states. Those proposals counter other parts of the bill and President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget that encourage states to attract investment in  infrastructure… Indiana, Illinois and Colorado are the three states directly affected by the amendment, according to Bingaman’s office. States without private roads would get more U.S. highway money. Indiana in 2006 leased its turnpike for 75 years to Cintra, a unit of Madrid-based Ferrovial SA (FER), and Sydney-based Macquarie Infrastructure, in the largest U.S. public-private road lease deal to date. Lawmakers and Obama are looking to companies and investors to help pay for toll roads and other projects as the Highway Trust Fund, which pays for infrastructure from U.S. fuel taxes, faces insolvency as soon as October. The Bingaman amendment was backed by the American Trucking Associations and AAA, the former American Automobile Association. It was opposed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest business lobbying group, and the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, a construction trade group. Bloomberg

Sunshine laws need an upgrade – opinion
..Almost 40 years ago, lawmakers began passing transparency laws across the country to ensure the public would have “sunshine” and access to information about the way public services and tax dollars are managed. This week, In The Public Interest released a new report detailing how private contractors are evading oversight by exploiting loopholes in current state sunshine and open record laws.  Most state laws do not address the new practice of privatizing government services. The explosion of government contracting in the last decade has exposed a key weakness: companies now use a strategy that rests on re-classifying once public information as proprietary and private. A pattern of cases detailed in the report illustrate how claims are challenged and dismissed by invoking the corporate shield of “work product.” When municipalities shift control from public institutions to private sector companies — they risk losing access to the most basic information needed to govern and steward public funds…First, the federal, state and local governments should strengthen existing open records laws to expand the reach to government contractors and tax subsidized work. Next, they should repeal laws that intentionally reduce transparency and cloak contracts in secrecy. Finally, government agencies should increase and expand online disclosure of contracting-related information. – By Donald Cohen, In the Public Interest
Taunton Daily Gazette

National parks for sale?
A powerful Republican chairman in the House of Representatives just shared with his constituents his desire to begin selling our national parks. Rep. Cliff Stearns of Florida was caught on video in a local town meeting. Here is what he said: “I got attacked in a previous town meeting for not supporting another national park in this country, a 200-mile trailway. And I told the man that we don’t need more national parks in this country, we need to actually sell off some of our national parks.” He went on to compare national parks to owning a Cadillac — nice to have, but something you should sell when times get tight. That’s right — apparently he thinks of the Grand Canyon as a car…Unfortunately, Rep. Stearns isn’t the only prominent politician who thinks of the conservation legacy of Theodore Roosevelt as just so much surplus property. Some of the current candidates for leader of the free world have also mused about putting America’s national heritage on the chopping block, and the House of Representatives has actually passed or considered favorably a series of radical bills in this Congress that amount to an all-out war on the concept of holding public lands in trust for future generations. Huffington Post

IL: Plans to privatize Midway airport may fly again
Chicago attorney John Schmidt, a key adviser to the city on the ultimately unsuccessful push several years ago to privatize Midway Airport, says such a deal would be viable now, given that the financial markets have stabilized. “It can be done, and the question is whether the city wants to do it at this point,” Schmidt said Wednesday…His comments come as the city faces a March 31 deadline to decide whether to retain a slot for Midway in the Federal Aviation Administration’s airport privatization pilot program…Former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s original deal to lease Midway for 99 years for $2.5 billion collapsed in 2009 when investors could not securing financing during the financial turmoil at that time. And leasing public assets in return for an upfront windfall has become a political sore spot since the city leased its parking meter operations, starting in 2009. Rising rates for street parking, the city’s use of proceeds to plug budget gaps and a sense that the city could have cut a more lucrative deal have soured public opinion. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been noncommittal toward the idea of privatizing Midway. But he also is touting public-private partnerships as a way to bolster the city’s aging infrastructure and to take on major new projects the city cannot afford in an era of dwindling federal and state funding. On Wednesday, Emanuel formally introduced an ordinance to create an infrastructure trust, a structure aimed at fostering public-private projects. The City Council could vote on the proposal as early as next month. Chicago Tribune

PA: For Penn State, going private an option
For years, lawmakers have groused that Penn State walks, talks and spends like a private school. As state support continues to slide, university officials say that idea may not be so far-fetched.  In response to a question Tuesday about the possibility of the university’s “becoming more private,” board of trustees Chairwoman Karen Peetz said all options are on the table. Peetz said she’s talked with representatives from Cornell, a fellow land-grant university that receives some government support but remains private. Cornell’s structure could give Penn State guidance in moving past its state-related status, she said….
Her statement drew an immediate response from the administration. University press officers, updating Penn State’s website to clarify her comments, firmly deny that Penn State would give up its public status. “Penn State is not exploring how to become private,” spokeswoman Lisa Powers said. “Penn State is exploring how to remain public in the face of declining public funds.” But other university trustees acknowledge they’ve discussed looking at other colleges for guidance, with Cornell attracting attention. Gov. Tom Corbett’s latest budget, which cuts Penn State’s funding by 30 percent, has forced the board to consider other avenues to keep tuition affordable and quality high, some said…Experts say Cornell is not a good model to follow, noting that the private college’s land-grant status was conferred long after it was founded as a private school. No single land-grant university has successfully gone from public school to private, said Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities spokesman Paul Hassen. The Morning Call

FL: Florida parents push back against for-profit schools
The controversial “parent trigger” bill has been a hot topic in discussions over education policy in Florida recently. The Florida Senate blocked a piece of legislation last Friday that would give parents – and likely private business interests – significantly more influence over the state school system…Modeled after education policy in California, the bill would have allowed parents to vote on what to do with ‘persistently failing schools’ within their respective school districts. This bill demonstrated the continued influence of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush who was heavily involved in drafting the legislation. Bush’s organization, Foundation for Florida’s Future, sponsored the bill, which raised the ire of many lawmakers and parent groups.. The bill died in large part due to the opposition of Senate minority leader, Democrat Nan Rich, who said that “the legislation was billed as a ‘parent empowerment’ legislation, and I think it has nothing to do with empowering parents – it has everything to do with laying the groundwork for a takeover of our public schools by private, for-profit, charter-management companies.”..”This is not about charter schools; we have many good charter schools. This is about private for-profit charter management companies,” she said. “This is about people who want to make their way into the pipeline of the billions of dollars in annual state funding and property tax creditors. It’s about a direct attack on public education and one that dismantles and de-funds public education in favour of the private management companies.” “Why don’t we fund our public schools properly, and then maybe we can focus more on those failing schools and provide them with the resources they need?” she asked. Huffington Post

CA: Public college charging students extra for mandatory classes
…Santa Monica College is pursuing a plan to offer a selection of higher-cost classes to students who need them, provoking protests from some who question the fairness of such a two-tiered education system. Under the plan, approved by the governing board and believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, the two-year college would create a nonprofit foundation to offer such in-demand classes as English and math at a cost of about $200 per unit. Currently, fees are $36 per unit, set by the Legislature for California community college students. That fee will rise to $46 this summer….But some say higher-priced classes are tantamount to privatizing the public institution. Administrators say the plan is a reaction to drastic state funding cuts, which have forced the campus to pare more than 1,000 class sections since 2008. In the current year, funding was reduced by $11 million. Business Insider

NJ: Englewood school outsourcing plan leads to protest at meeting
Wearing yellow stop signs proclaiming “no outsourcing,” concerned residents and Englewood employees came out in droves to a Feb. 23 Board of Education meeting to protest a decision to examine proposals for outsourcing positions in the school district…Among positions that could be effected include nurses, paraprofessionals, substitutes, secretaries, occupational therapists and the Child Study Team.
…Anita Shemesh, co-president of the Englewood Teachers Association, argued that these positions involve direct interaction with students, parents and the community. A connection of loyalty and trust has been established with these professionals, who often deal with essential details related to safety and security of students. This connection would be broken if outsourced employees, who have no relationship with the students, are brought into the district, Shemesh said. “If they’re not district employees, their primary loyalty and accountability will not be to EPSD [Englewood Public School District], nor to its students and the community,” said Shemesh. “Their principal relationship will be to an outside firm. Outsourcing interferes with the chain of responsibility within the school.” Northern Valley Suburbanite

FL: Feds question Florida’s Medicaid privatization plans
Months after the state of Florida submitted its plans to privatize most of its Medicaid program, the federal government is still asking the state to explain the feasibility of those plans…    Questions touched on a wide range of issues, including safeguards that the state will put in place as it contracts with HMOs.  Already, the federal government has shot down the state’s plans to charge all Medicaid beneficiaries $10 a month for the program, as well as a request to charge a $100 copayment for receiving non-emergency medical care in a hospital. Feds told state officials that they could not impose premiums on families whose income is “at or below 150 percent” of the federal poverty level.  Florida Independent

LA: Some lawmakers oppose plan to close, sell prisons
The Louisiana Department of Corrections is counting on privatizing the state prison in Avoyelles Parish, closing facilities in Rapides and Caddo parishes and increasing employee retirement contributions to balance its budget. But the plan is running into some legislative resistance…Rep. James Armes, D-Leesville, the only Central Louisiana lawmaker on the Appropriations Committee, said he could not support the proposal impacting Dabadie and Avoyelles Correctional Center. “I’m strictly against privatization,” Armes said, “and I’m trying to keep everything open in Central Louisiana. “I’m not for selling more of the state,” he said. “It’s a quick fix for the budget, but down the road it’s going to cost us a lot of money when it comes to renegotiating contracts.”  Rep. Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, who is not on Appropriations, said he also can’t support the administration plan for prisons because it is “hitting our area pretty hard, and that’s somebody’s kid in that prison. “I feel like our Department of Corrections is doing a good job,” Harris said, but “I’m not for closing Avoyelles. I’m for keeping it open. There are some things that the state does well, and one of them is running prisons. I’m not for privatization.”
Alexandria Town Talk

CT: Bristol council’s question: Would it be cheaper to privatize city jobs?
In a move certain to get the attention of municipal unions, the Republican-dominated council on Wednesday agreed to research whether Bristol could save money by privatizing trash pickup, parks maintenance and information technology operations…“We’re facing a financial crisis,” said Czenczelewski, who also called on his colleagues to order municipal department heads to prepare austerity budgets as a contingency in case severe spending cuts become necessary… All five Republicans voted together to direct city hall staff to find out what Bristol would save — or lose — if it hires contractors to take over most duties of the parks, recreation and public works agencies. Ward, who cast the only “no” vote, cautioned that the responsibilities of a city are different from those of private businesses, citing snowplowing as an example. Fast work by a large crew of snowplow drivers is essential, and contractors can’t be relied on to come through in every storm, he said. “The [department] budgets that have been presented to the finance board are mean and lean, to say the least,” Ward said. Hartford Courant

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